Light-car designers compete with heavyweight automakers

Edison2’s prototype electric Very Light Car was based on the VLC above, which runs on gasoline. Its 100 mpg EPA rating for average distance traveled per unit of energy consumed helped it win the $5 million X Prize from Progressive Insurance in 2010. (Edison2 photo)

Kuttner calls the X Prize winner the Very Light Car. He thinks that within five years, Edison2 will produce about 10,000 cars a year in the United States. Since the car can be assembled in a warehouse-type structure, with a simple modular structure, he said the VLC could become a world car.

Peters, senior program manager at Tata Technologies, agreed with Kuttner about starting with a clean sheet. “The approach that has to be taken is not to start from what we know and change it. You have to start from zero and build it from there. It’s a completely different way of approaching the problem,” he said.

The most obvious innovations are a panoramic windshield and roof, with no roof pillar, and an integrated rear window/rear light assembly, all made of polycarbonate. There is no trunk, but the rear seats flip down for storage space, Peters said.

Peters and Davis work at Tata Technologies’ facility in Novi, Mich. Engineering teams from North America, Europe and India collaborated on the eMo. Tata Technologies is part of Tata Group, which also includes the Indian carmaker, but they work independently, with any automaker.

The eMo could get the equivalent of 150 mpg and carry four adults. In production it would cost about $20,000.

“To achieve what we attempt to do, you could not start with an existing vehicle,” Peters said.

A Lotus Engineering Ltd. study showed a combination of materials — aluminum, magnesium, plastic and steel — will be a key to reducing weight, said Gregg Peterson, senior technology specialist. He gave examples of sandwich structures to give high strength, crash resistance and weight savings. Coated plastic parts can be used under the hood.

Peterson is a member of a Lotus team that developed a vehicle body structure 37 percent lighter than one with a steel body. Lotus Engineering is part of Lotus Cars of Norfolk, England.

“One of our goals was to have each part have two or three functions — multiple functions for every part,” he said.

Kuttner said the engineers of the Lynchburg, Va.-based Edison2 focused on taking out weight and mass. “We reinvented what a car is,” he said.

One key development was creating a suspension system that fits entirely inside the wheels, instead of under the car, significantly cutting weight and taking up much less space, and allowing a flat floor by getting rid of the strut tower. “This suspension, we believe, will find its way into a number of production cars in the near future,” Kuttner said.

Kuttner also thinks plastics has a good future, not just from lightweighting, but because of social changes like car-sharing services in big cities.

“Plastic cars are going to become more popular, because people are going to give up the detail of the great personal palace of a car, to something that’s easy and quick and convenient that you can use for a few hours and hand back,” Kuttner said. “Then somebody has to clean it, so plastics are definitely going to start to take over there because they can be designed to be more friendly for things like that.”

Kuttner, a real estate developer and race car enthusiast, said big car corporations keep their engineers in a straightjacket when it comes to radical changes needed to meet the corporate average fuel economy — or CAFE — standards.

“You have to be allowed to be free. And there are a lot of great engineers out there,” he said. “I think this shift will destroy some companies, and it will be also a great opportunity for the industry, a great opportunity of careers. It’s the great opportunity for plastics.”

Kuttner acknowledged his team’s roots in racing, where bigger and faster is better.

“But we’re also humans. I actually believe that a consumer is perfectly happy to accept something slightly less than a Class A finish, if the price is right, and the service is right, and everything else works. And at that point, plastics are really special, and the tipping point is there.”

See Plastics News' video coverage of Plastics in Lightweight Vehicles, including interviews with light-car designers, atplasticsnews.com/video.